“My god… it feels so nice to have these motherfucking stingray wings again. I bet I could swim more than 100 km/h with these bad boys, faster than any fish could ever swim!” He thought, and this train of thoughts was giving him a sort of euphoria, he felt as if he was in the clouds!

The fact of the matter was that plenty of fish could outswim him, even those who didn't have a strong magical arsenal to aid them, but he was avoiding all facts right now. He was in a deep fantasy land, and it might even be dangerous to pull him out of it.

Anyway, the team of five managed to travel two whole kilometers already, and as of now, they were nearly five hundred meters below the sea surface. They had swam deep enough to feel a great deal of the water pressure around them, and they were very well aware that the water pressure could kill them if they pushed such limits.

Caution was mandatory, however, the odds were that the other challenges which The Old Sea posed, could kill them quicker than the water pressure would! There were monstrous fish within the sea, and these fish didn't seem as mindless as the ones that they typically had to deal with.

Timothy got irritated by this fact, he got angry really fast, and expressed. “I did so much work to be stronger than those bastarding fish back home, but… fuck my efforts, eh? I can't kill any of the bastards here, some of them are bigger than whales for fuck’s sake!”

“Not to mock your dreams, but, it's my understanding that there are countless seas out there, stashed between many universes, so it's unlikely that you'll be the strongest fish ever no matter how much you try. There's always a bigger fish.” Skendus added. He was trying to comfort his friend, but ended up choosing the wrong words.

Before the two of them could bicker, Arvena stated something that caught all of their attention. “Screw the fish! I saw at least three sea orcs circling around us, sniffing us out! They're otherwise known as sea dragons, they're the big guys you're complaining about, Tim, so it doesn't matter if you're the biggest fish or not, because sometimes the sea is full of bastards that aren’t fish at all! In this case, the sea has fifty-foot long dragons that can eat us all with a single gulp if it decided to attack.”

Tim was distressed, but at some point he just heaved out a deep sigh, and then said. “Well, fuck me twice, then? Fuck my efforts, or, our efforts, because we might die today after all we’ve been through. Sea orcs sound too badass for us to kill...”

Tim may be dramatic, but he had a point. The fact of the matter was that they were truly outmatched here, The Old Sea contained plenty of monsters, so it was best if they avoided fighting them all together.

The team kept swimming, and hoped not to run into any trouble along the way, but Tim didn't want to hang on to hope alone, so he decided to spend some of the system points that he had gathered. He was hoping to buy something that wouldn't cause him much pain, and help protect his friends at the same time, so he asked the system for help.

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[You can buy a purchase that would increase your water pressure resistance, but that's about it, the rest of the upgrades are really painful, because they're meant to upgrade your body in every way possible, rather than giving you new powers to add to your arsenal. Considering your recent massive ascension in terms of mana quality, it's imperative that you toughen your body up, let your friends defend themselves. Buy the water pressure resistance upgrade, because it isn't too painful, and it might just save your life out here.] The system explained.

Furthermore, she added. [Although your ‘expanded’ stingray body is capable of handling depths of up to five-hundred meters, you'll be putting yourself at risk the deeper you go. Add three-hundred meters to your depth resistance now, and you'll have a much greater chance at avoiding such crushing damage later on. Don't wait until it's too late, because system points are meant to be spent, after all, Timothy.]

“I hear ya, give me the upgrade, then.” He requested, half depressed.

After a single beep, the system granted his request. Timothy then immediately noticed that his insides were feeling funny, and although this was a bit painful, it wasn’t bad enough to paralyze him. It was acute pain, which also caused a sizable amount of anxiety, because his organs were feeling weird, as they were being carved and shaped to resist a greater deal of water pressure. It was a process that he didn't understand, and didn't want to understand either for the sake of his own sanity!

After a few minutes, the upgrade was complete, and he was freed from any and all discomfort. Not only did he feel better after at least half of the water pressure was lifted off of him, but he could see better as well, on the count that he didn't have to protect his eyes as much. The crippling, heavy sea wasn't weighing down on his eyes anymore!

“Oh yeah… I haven't felt this relieved ever since I shat those bones through my ass back at our sea….” He heaved out a sigh of relief, though most couldn’t understand why he was muttering about bones right now.

[Upgrade complete! You just increased your water pressure resistance limit by three-hundred meters! This upgrade cost you 2,000 system points, so 28,000 points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.

Then, she further explained. [You can withstand sea depths of up to 800 meters now. As mentioned, your current, large stingray body helped increase your water pressure resistance as well, and that’s part of why you can swim down to the 800 meter mark now!]

“Okay, I can work with that.” He mumbled.

Paired with the fact that his mana quality was also decent, he felt more ready to face the challenges of The Old Sea! Regarding details, he could spot the sea orcs as well after the water pressure was lifted off of him, and he could understand why Arvena was scared of them, they were absolutely massive!

They had dark-green scales, had a fat head, were snake-like, and were about fifty feet wide! Paired with the fact that he couldn't see into their mana pool either, it was more clear to him than ever now that they should avoid fighting these sea orcs! Arvena had every right to be anxious about fighting another dragon!

“Let’s hope we run into a few mana roots or something, we could sure use a couple more levels…” He said.